Shadowy super PAC spent big

The Campaign for Primary Accountability, a super PAC that has targeted incumbent members of Congress, raised more than $645,000 in March, federal documents show.

The Houston-based group spent nearly $800,000 last month. Most of that—about $670,000—was on independent expenditures targeting incumbent members in competitive races across the country. They had $437,807 cash-on-hand at the end of the month.

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CPA has struck fear into the two major political parties whose incumbents, like Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) and Rep. Tim Holden (D-Pa.), have faced tens of thousands of dollars in spending attacking them on the airwaves in their districts.

It has also touched off controversy within the Republican Party due of a $25,000 contribution House Minority Leader Eric Cantor made to the group through his leadership PAC last month.

Cantor had already surprised House Republican leaders when he picked sides in a messy primary between two incumbent Illinois Republicans Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Don Manzullo. Cantor supported Kinzinger, while other party leaders pledged to remain neutral. CPA has hit Manzullo with more than $391,000 in March alone.

The filings do detail a $25,000 contribution from 18th District Republican Central Committee, a committee affiliated with Rep. Aaron Schock. Schock, a Republican who represents Illinois 18th Congressional District, had told that Cantor his $25,000 contribution would be matched.

Responding to the controversy stemming from his donation, Cantor has said that the money was supposed to have been earmarked for the Manzullo race, not for expenditures against other Republican incumbents.

In a separate document submitted to the FEC, the super PAC noted that they received a $25,000 donation from Cantor’s Every Republican is Crucial PAC “dedicated to” the Kinzinger-Manzullo race.

However, Curtis Ellis, a spokesman for CPA, insisted repeatedly in an interview that neither Cantor nor his staff asked CPA to earmark his donation to that race before it was spent. The donation came just days before the primary and “it just so happened” that it was used on the Manzullo race, Ellis said.

“Nobody told us ahead of time, but the reality is that’s where the money went,” Curtis Ellis said. “If it’s going to make Mr. Cantor happy, then that’s it. The statement is there. We filed a piece of paper with the FEC saying that this is where the money was spent.”

“Aquinas Companies CEO Leo Linbeck donated twice to the PAC, for a total of $350,000. Another donor, Jonathan Farber, co-founder and managing director of Lime Rock Partners, donated $100,000.

So far, CPA is running a lean operation. It payed only $6,167.00 in payroll to staff, $3,200 in accounting fees, and $2,141 in credit card processing fees for donations. About $110,000, or most of their expenses as a PAC, not including the ads themselves, has gone toward “field work” and the production of those ads.